Shasta College freshman Megan McColpin delivers a pitch in the 8-7 win over Napa Valley.

The road to Bakersfield will come through Redding. And it won't be down Interstate 5.

With an 8-7 win over No. 15 Napa Valley on Sunday afternoon, second-seeded Shasta College softball moved on from the CCCAA first-round playoffs and will host a Super Regional beginning Friday.

The state championships will be held in Bakersfield a week later, and if the Knights break through the four-team Super Regional, they'll be headed south.

"It went from 85 teams; the playoffs go to 32, and now we're down to 16," Shasta coach Sonny Stupek said. "It's just really fun, but the next level is a lot harder."

Shasta (36-6) acted as the road team Sunday — determined by a pregame coin flip — and pounded the Storm in the first inning. With two outs, all-state outfielder Racie Carrel smacked a double to center field, and three batters later with the bases loaded, catcher Ally Wimer walked for a 1-0 lead.

Behind Wimer, Andrea Davis smoked a two-run single to right field, bringing home Noelle Blake and Kayla Spini. The Knights finished off the inning with a trap steal, as Davis took off from first base to draw a throw, and Wimer scampered home from third before Napa Valley could tag anybody.

Davis' knock, Stupek said, is unsurprising to him and his team — just another clutch moment from an undervalued player.

"She's been one of our most steady kids and very rarely gets a lot of praise," Stupek said. "She makes all the plays."

Davis hammered a double to right-center two innings later, scoring on D.J. Foster's squeeze bunt to make it 5-2 Shasta.

But Napa Valley didn't relent, touching up McColpin for two more runs in the third, including a squeeze bunt of its own. In the fifth inning, Stupek went to Spini, his other starting pitcher, but went back to McColpin in the same inning. With one out and the bases loaded, McColpin gave up a sacrifice fly, but then got a swinging strikeout to end the frame.

"It was just really intense, and the whole time it could've been anyone's game," said McColpin, who graduated from Red Bluff High. "I played in the section game in high school, but this was just a super nerve-racking game."

Shasta tacked on a final run in the sixth inning on Foster's sac fly to right field, but Napa Valley reciprocated to make it 8-7 with an inning to go.

McColpin got a couple pop ups to bring the Knights within an out of the Super Regionals, but the Storm's Cristina Vang and Demi Gray both rapped singles to keep themselves in it.

In that inning, McColpin was visited multiple times by the first baseman Blake, keeping her confidence up and focus on the art of pitching, not the spotlight of the playoffs.

"I was just telling her to throw your hardest," Blake said, "and we'll back you up."

With two outs and ahead two strikes, McColpin got Brittany Jacques to hit a routine grounder to the shortstop Nikki Foster , who flipped it to Katie Eiler at second base.

Shasta came together, lifting Nikki Foster in the air in celebration of its Super Regional berth.

"I like this group, (we're) 36-6," Stupek said. "Yeah, I'm happy."

The Knights open up Super Regional play at 2 p.m. Friday, and the tourney concludes Sunday.

"We still have a lot to work on — we had a few errors — but we still have this week coming up," Blake said. "And we're just going to get better."